Mentoring Through Basketball

In preparing for the mentoring aspect of the PASS program I wanted some ways to make instant connections with the kids. One of the easiest ways I know how to do this is through sports, not just playing them, but even more so in discussing or arguing about them as well. Before the program started, I assumed that since these kids were Somalian they would be into soccer because, well, that is the world's sport. I don't know much about international soccer, but I brushed up on some of the major topics, teams and players and prepared to try and make a connection with them through that route. I even wore my only soccer jersey, a Netherlands practice jersey I received as a gift, to the first day of class. It turned out I was wrong about their interest in soccer, but I could not have been more correct about the ability to make a connection through sport. These kids were obsessed with basketball, and I mean OBSESSED. I could not believe how much they new about the NBA. I consider myself a very knowledgable NBA fan, to the point where a lot of people think it is weird how much I know about obscure players, but these kids put my knowledge to shame. They knew every player by name and the days were filled with friendly arguments about which player was the best, which player was their favorite and which team was going to take the title this year. I had a lot of fun joining in on these conversations and I was really lucky that we shared this common interest that could get us talking right off the bat. These kids loved the NBA and it was this passion that made it easy for them to learn and retain a ridiculous amount of information on the subject. As a strategy to help them apply this passion in a school setting, I tried to put different subjects in basketball terms. Geography was about learning where all the teams and players were from, math was about calculating stats and averages and it was easy to get them to read any book that even had a vague connection to the game. It is my hope that through basketball, we were actually able to broaden the interests of these kids. At the beginning of the program, when we asked the kids to write a journal on what they wanted to be when they grew up, every kid would answer "a basketball player." However, by the end, we were getting much more thoughtful answers that didn't just have to do with physical talent and ability, answers like a coach, general manager, business owner and even CIA and FBI agents, all somehow grown out of and connected to their love of basketball. At the end of the program, it was really cool to see how we were able to broaden their interests by utilizing their passion for basketball as a sort of a driving force to peak their interest. I think this was one aspect of the mentoring process where we experienced a lot of success.